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Quick Bites: Khon's, V. Paul's open

Paul Bruno of V. Paul's Italian Ristorante is shown in the almost-ready-to-open restaurant located at 29 Palafox Place in downtown Pensacola. The restaurant offers several dining venues from the bar, shown here, to more informal dining with a view of Palafox Place in downtown Pensacola to more secluded dining are in the distant background in this photo. Father Joseph Callipare stopped by Wednesday morning to bless the restaurant that should open in a few weeks.(Photo: Bruce Graner/bgraner@pnj.com Bruce Graner/bgraner@pnj.com)

After a beverages-only trial run Friday, Khon's on Palafox, 34 Palafox Place, is set to open Tuesday with full food service. There has been a lot of excitement about this sushi and Asian fusion restaurant featuring cuisine by Chef Dot Chap, who built an excellent reputation as the sushi chef at H2O at the Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front for many years. And if you check out the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/khonsonpalafox, you'll see the extensive work that has been put into the former Nacho Daddies location — honestly, I don't think you'll recognize it.

While you're on the Facebook page, check out the extensive menu, with a wide variety of interesting dishes that we just haven't had downtown, period. I'm always advocating for new and unique concepts and menus on our downtown dining scene, and it seems Khon's really is going to deliver in that regard.

As has been mentioned elsewhere in the PNJ, V. Paul's Ristorante Italiano also is set to open this week at 29 Palafox Place, and if you just can't wait, get a sneak peek from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at a special fundraiser for The Global Corner. Attendees will meet the owners and sample the menu and Italian wines.

The cost is $50, and you can reserve your spot online at www.theglobalcorner.org or by calling 332-6404.

The Navy Boulevard Sonny's Bar-B-Q restaurant took on more than a foot of water in April's floods. Now remodeled, the restaurant is scheduled to re-open today.(Photo: Special to the News Journal)

Sonny's back in service

Barbecue fans on the Westside will be happy to hear that their neighborhood Sonny's Real Pit Bar-B-Q is slated to reopen today, three months to the day after the historic April 29-30 floods forced its closure.

Susan Brady, the regional marketing director for the locally owned Sonny's franchises, said the reopening brings a whole new look to the Sonny's at 630 N. Navy Blvd., a remodel that would have been coming to the store eventually that got moved up on the calendar when the floods caused extensive damage. The building took on more than 16 inches of water in the storm.

The remodel features a more open restaurant space including a large window into the barbecue pit area, allowing diners to watch as pitmasters pull the meat from the smokers.

For more information, call 456-2000 or visit www.sonnysbbq.com.

Gallery Night follow-up

After last week's column about the complications with closing the July Gallery Night, Downtown Improvement Board Chairman John Peacock contacted me to let me know the board is reviewing procedures to make sure any mistakes made will not be repeated in the future.

Gallery Night closed early because of lightning — as near as anyone can tell, the only time in the history of the event it has been closed for weather concerns. Peacock said the Downtown Improvement Board would do a better job of communicating closures to the public in the future, should they become necessary.